First there was bare chested Putin, now theres bare chested

[mr friendly guy]

Obama

Shirtless Obama whips up web frenzy
ABC - December 24, 2008, 8:23 am

Paparazzi snaps of a shirtless and toned Barack Obama with his family on holiday in Hawaii sparked envy, anger and a torrent of bad puns after they were posted on the internet.

"Fit for Office ... Buff Bam is Hawaii hunk," blared the New York Post with a front-page splash of the rippling President-elect showing not an inch of flab as he strolled in his swimming trunks through a Hawaii resort.

A photographer affiliated with California-based agency Bauer-Griffin evaded a ring of security around the president-elect and his family at the beach resort.

News photographers following Mr Obama in his press pool are being kept away from the President-elect at the residence.

Several shots on the Bauer-Griffin website are of a muscled and trim Mr Obama in his swimming trunks, showing the reward of his daily early morning workouts.

Other more controversial pictures show Michelle Obama with the future first couple's daughters Malia and Sasha, who have been shielded from the media, apparently heading back to their vacation lodgings after a swim.

"Wow" wrote one poster on the Huffington Post website which provided a link to the Obama pictures.

Another poster noted that the days of gray, "old" presidents in the White House were over.

But other posters angrily assailed Bauer-Griffin over the shoot, as Mr Obama, set to be sworn in as president on January 20, and his family enjoy a private vacation.

"Take the pics of the kids down," wrote a poster on the firm's website, bauergriffinonline.com, which was performing sluggishly on Tuesday afternoon amid a surge in traffic.

Bauer-Griffin co-owner Frank Griffin told the Washington Post that the snapper was not asked to leave the public beach from where he spotted Mr Obama.

"There was tacit approval that he was able to shoot what he could shoot, it's a public beach," Mr Griffin told the paper.

- *AFP*

Now we just need Obama to shoot an endangered grizzly bear with tranquilisers and the propaganda is complete. Ba wha wha.

[General Zod]

Meh. We had shirtless Obama pics months ago. The media's making a fuss over nothing here.

[The Yosemite Bear]

long before that there was Bare Shirted Kennedy pics.

[Havok]

Aren't these the types of stories we want in Off Topic?

[Shroom Man 777]

Plus the article doesn't even have the naked pictures in question! That's all sorts of LAEM.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Does he shave his chest?

[Colonel Olrik]

That's it? Better than average, but nothing special unless your standards are very low.

[Shroom Man 777]

At least Putin looks more robust and he has the facial expression that tells you that he's built like a rock.

[Solauren]

I think the real story is the photographer in question evaded security.

Should the Secret Service be able to, oh, demand to the company that published the pictures hand over the photographer, and sweat him for info how he got near the President-Elect?

[Bilbo]

I think the real story is the photographer in question evaded security.

Should the Secret Service be able to, oh, demand to the company that published the pictures hand over the photographer, and sweat him for info how he got near the President-Elect?

Yeah just like the photographer who happened to get close enough to take pictures of Clinton and Hillary dancing on the beach that time.

If you do not think this was staged then I have some bridges in the everglades I want to sell you.

[D.Turtle]

I think the real story is the photographer in question evaded security.

Should the Secret Service be able to, oh, demand to the company that published the pictures hand over the photographer, and sweat him for info how he got near the President-Elect?

According to this story on ABC, he didn't evade security - they knew he was there. He simply used a large (2½ foot) telephoto lens and took the pictures from public property 150 feet away.

Oh and the picture posted before was an old one.

Here is a link to the new ones.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

That's it? Better than average, but nothing special unless your standards are very low.

The average American doesn't have a sixpack, Olrik, they have a keg.

[The Grim Squeaker]

I think the real story is the photographer in question evaded security.

Should the Secret Service be able to, oh, demand to the company that published the pictures hand over the photographer, and sweat him for info how he got near the President-Elect?

According to this story on ABC, he didn't evade security - they knew he was there. He simply used a large (2½ foot) telephoto lens and took the pictures from public property 150 feet away.

Oh and the picture posted before was an old one.

Here is a link to the new ones.

Old one was better. And a shot with a crop camera with a 2.0X teleconverter on a 500 or 800 mm lense? And the fact that the photo is obviously cropped?
Hell, you could be in the next state and still get a photo of that quality with that kind of set up.

What's the deal though? So there's a bare shirted Obama picture, i'm sure you could find one somewhere from his pre-Prez days, and he was obviously thin and strong even with his clothes on. For that matter, Bush is considered a fitness/health nut as white house presidents go (He's one of the top 12 fittest presidents).
Why is this in N&P and not OP or even AM&P? (I'm not trying to play backseat mod, I'm just curious and asking so that I can better understand the new "human interest" stories rules).

[Siege]

(He's one of the top 12 fittest presidents).

Oh come on, how could you possibly ever hope to determine such a thing? Did someone write up a series of universal fitness criteria, hijack the TARDIS, and go back in time to compare Obama's physical condition to that of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, et al?

[Setzer]

Jesus Christ, when did politics become a modelling photo shoot? Don't they have better things to do then drool over public figure's bodies?

[Enigma]

What? No bare chested Palin?

I kinda see the reason for pictures of bare chested Presidents. I guess to show the world how buff their leader is. Something that cannot be said of Canada's prime ministers. The only exception would have been Trudeau.

[Broomstick]

Does he shave his chest?

You're Caucasian, right?

Hairy chests are a feature of white people. They do appear in other ethnic groups but bald-chested men are actually the human norm. Yes, Obama is half-Caucasian but clearly in this trait he takes after the African side of the family. He might shave his chest, but more likely his chest just isn't hairy.

[CarsonPalmer]

Based on anecdotal evidence, you could theoretically compile a list of the most fit presidents. I don't know how you could sort out the top, but you could safely say that Lincoln, Teddy, and Obama are among the most fit, and William Henry Harrison, Chester Arthur, and William Howard Taft are among the least.

[Broomstick]

If Lincoln actually had Marfan syndrome (which I doubt will ever be determined) then he may have looked fit but actually wasn't. Also, FDR was in pretty bad shape, particularly after term number 2, which had a lot to do with why he died in office. Kennedy was another one of those guys who looked healthy but he really had some horrible problems, from his back to his adrenal disease which would have killed him quickly without on going treatment.

Some of the guys elected have actually been in really bad shape.

[Shroom Man 777]

How about Teddy Roosevelt? Wasn't he a real man's man, going hiking and cowboying and fighting wars and stuff?

[Broomstick]

Not just that, but he was shot in an assassination attempt but insisted on standing up and giving a long speech before seeking medical attention. Yep, Teddy was one tough old coot.

[The Grim Squeaker]

Not just that, but he was shot in an assassination attempt but insisted on standing up and giving a long speech before seeking medical attention. Yep, Teddy was one tough old coot.

The bullet went through his speech (a thick pile of books) and inflicted a flesh wound after that. The doctors decided to leave it in afterwards due to it being non critical (And safer to just leave it in).
But yeah, he was a tough bastard